outer demon wars 01 - comic book demon (5 page)

I had gone from self-centered child to grieving daughter with no time to really grasp the magnitude of losing her. I had woken up one day, and she had simply no longer been there as though she’d never really existed in the first place. The first few months, I’d had to will my heart to beat. Now, when I saw Mac, I couldn’t beg my heart to stop. 

The pain of her absence felt like a dull ache, another heartbeat that throbbed a constant beat of bitter agony. At times, I thought the overwhelming emotions that swirled around me would consume me whole. Mom had been gone six months, and I felt so guilty for being happy. Well, for having happy moments anyway. 

There was a loud knock on the door, followed by Mac’s low, smooth voice. “Dara, is everything okay?” 

“Yes, I’m fine,” I croaked back. 

I wasn’t. The pain felt so real. Felt so fresh. I felt as if I would be changed forever by the agony her death brought. I blinked up at the spray of the shower. If there were any tears, they were washed away. I wished the water would do the same for the pain and guilt. 

Off in another world, I didn’t hear the bathroom door open. I only felt the cool air lick along my damp skin. My head flew up, and I saw Mac’s green gaze. I’d never been body shy, but he seemed to change my reactions. My hands flew to cover my chest. His eyebrows raised in question and a smile spread across his wicked face. He got into the damn shower fully clothed. 

“What are you . . . uff.” 

He scooped me up in his arms and sat me down on the marble bench that lined the back of the stall. The stone was so cool on my heated skin that I broke out in gooseflesh. He knelt down and put a finger under my chin. 

“What’s wrong?” The water was pelting his back, drenching him, but he didn’t seem fazed by it. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” 

He frowned. 

Reaching out a hand and brushing the water off my damp cheek, he said, “I’m sorry for whatever it is. I won’t push. But, know I am here.” 

I reached up and grabbed his hand, feeling bold. I dropped my arms and gave him a full view of me. His eyes dipped down to my bare breasts, and his eyes flicked from green to blazing red. I trailed one of his fingers down my neck to my collarbone and continued to make a painfully slow trail south, never breaking eye contact. 

I stopped just before his hand reached my breast. I needed him to make the final leap. It needed it to be his choice. He cupped my small but firm breast, and my head fell back at the near electric feel of his skin against mine. He sucked in a breath, and that sent a jolt of pleasure to spike low in my belly. He kneaded my soft mound then found the painfully hard nipple in short order. He rolled the pebbled flesh between his thumb and forefinger. I tried like hell to bite back a moan. But, I failed. 

“Oh,
dara
, I don’t know if I will be able to stop myself. And if I taste you, I’ll never be able to give you up.” 

His words washed over me, leaving me feeling super heated and panting. He didn’t give me a chance to respond before his mouth covered my nipple. I cried out at the feel of him suckling my peak. He began a wicked dance of sucking me deeper and flicking my nipple with his tongue. Then he added his other hand and my other breast into the mix, and I was a melted puddle of my former self. My core was nearly dripping and there was a throb building and aching so badly, I thought I would be ripped apart by it. I wanted to touch him, but each time I went for him, he snarled at me. 

“I want to touch you, Mac.” My tone was breathless. 

He pulled away from my breast with an audible pop. “Anabelle, I need more before I let you touch me. I need to taste your sweetness, love.” His voice was all gravel. 

I didn’t understand his meaning until I felt him parting my thighs with his strong hands. I began to tremble. I was a virgin, and the last time a guy had done this to me, it had been awful. I was afraid that’s how it would be again. Once I was fully spread to him, he looked at me with such intensity that I thought there was something wrong. He reached a hand to my drenched folds and ran a finger up and down the slick flesh. 

“Oh,” I choked out. 

“You are so beautiful,
dara
. I have wanted to touch you like this. And oh sweet hell, you are so wet.”

 I moaned at his words. He lowered his head to me and placed a chaste kiss on my sex. A shiver ran through my body. 

“I am going to eat you alive,” he growled as he parted my wet folds.

 I didn’t have time to formulate words in my mind, much less speak them before I felt his tongue on me in a long, slow, wet lick. I stopped breathing. I very nearly stopped being. His tongue expertly lapped at me. I didn’t even try to hold back my moans. 

“You taste how I imagined you would, so sweet,” he purred next to my sensitive clit. 

The vibrations nearly took me over. I felt his finger spread me wide just moments before he returned to, as he’d said, eating me alive. The pressure inside me was being stroked one lap at a time. I lost track of time, memories, thoughts—everything. I lost track of myself. One of his fingers slipped lower and just nudged at my entrance. Oh, the sweet pain, I wanted it inside of me. I bucked up against him, praying he would oblige, but he just circled it. 

“Calm, my little demon. I want to take this with something else first.”

 He was going to kill me or make me wish I were dead. Ugh, I was so close. I knew, if I just bucked my hips at the right time, he would. All thought stopped when he sucked my clit into his mouth and began flicking it with his wicked, should be illegal, tongue. I flew apart. I screamed his name as I came in the most Earth shattering, personality changing orgasm of my life. I felt my sheathe clench, looking for the one thing I was now dying to have. Him inside of me. 

He didn’t let up. He kept licking and suckling me. The feeling was growing to be so intense I didn’t know if I could take much more. 

“Please, I can’t,” I insisted under his disastrous tongue. 

“You can, and you will,” he snarled against me. 

He moved a hand to my belly and held me still. Then, he slipped the tip of his finger inside of me. Just the smallest breach of my entrance, and it left me screaming for more. I tried to wiggle or move, but he didn’t allow it. Oh, holy Darth Vader, I was going to come again. 

He sucked my clit over and over as if he knew my body, just what I needed, and how I would respond to him. I fractured, then shattered into a million pieces of myself. I screamed as my sex clenched in another orgasm. I felt as though things like thought, speech, breathing, and thinking were all too much for me. I distantly felt him kiss his way up my belly. He placed soft kisses on each of my nipples causing me to shudder. 

“I want to take you to bed,” he rasped in my ear.

“I-I-I don’t think I can walk after that.” It was true.

 He smiled, but it turned into a frown as he turned toward the door. 

“Someone is here,” his words were low and even.

 I hadn’t heard anyone knock. Weird. Maybe he had super senses, like Superman. That would be unfortunate since I adored Batman. 

“Oh, it’s someone from the front desk with the stuff. Will you get it?” 

He still had a worried look on his face but nodded. I began the arduous task of getting up. I had to in order to make love to that demon. The thought sent a thrill straight through me. 

I clambered to my feet and turned the water off, and then dried and tied the towel around my body. As soon as I stepped out of the bathroom, I knew something was wrong. The large room was empty. Yet, it felt as though there were a number of beings in it. I blinked and opened my mouth to call for Mac when I heard a knock. 

I walked over and opened the door to a kid standing there with a cart. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen, judging by his acne. Poor kid. He ushered in a large cart with food and several shopping bags, all without one word spoken.
Wait, I thought this kid already came.
Or at least someone had. I had a bad feeling about this. I needed to get him the hell out of there. He set the things in the room and went to wait by the doorway. 

Shit, a tip. 

“Hey, I don’t have any cash, but I swear I will get something to you.” I was mortified.

 The kid just rolled his eyes and left. I whirled to face the empty room. Something was very wrong. Where the fuck was Mac?

“Mac?” I called to the large room. 

Four large men seemed to coalesce from the shimmers of light spilling into the room. Three of them were holding Mac. I stood gaping. That was some major Jedi Mind shit. My heart rate ratcheted up a notch. Where the hell had they come from? 

The three men holding a seething Mac were like Bigfoot big and all looked alike.
Triplets?
They had tawny hair and were tanned within an inch of their lives. I could see their arms were covered in tattoos, but they were iridescent, and shone in the light. 

The fourth man, though he oozed mince and disdain, wasn’t as big as the others in either height or brawn. His hair was nearly white it was so blond, and his arms were covered in the same strange tattoos as Hughie, Dewy, and Louie. His eyes were a honey color though. The kind a girl could get lost in. Well, some other girl, not this one. 

“Princess.” The white-haired man spoke the word as though it were a disgusting taste on his tongue. 

“Uh, so I’ve been told.” Okay, I know it may not have been the best answer, given the situation, but I couldn’t help it. Apparently, my mind-to-mouth filter disappeared when I was under duress, who knew? 

 “This will be easier than I thought.” His words seemed to coil around me threatening to cut off my air. 

“Really? No long diatribe? I’m disappointed. All the bad guys in the movies explain their motivations or reveal some stunning truth. You know, like the classic line where Vader tells Luke that he’s his father.”  

“But, I am not your father.” He looked utterly confused.

“Well, thank God for that!” What was wrong with me? 

I had to get us out of the situation. I had to stop time. I just didn’t know how to do it. One of the three men brought a glass blade to Mac’s throat. My heart was threatening to beat its way out of my chest, and my sore head beat in time. I couldn’t let him die. I wouldn’t. 

“Ah, guardian, I see you have an admirer. She’s quite pretty. Small for a demon, but very, very pretty.” 

The man’s eyes raked over me, making me feel exposed, but I was not some powerless female. The man holding the knife laughed, and the motion sent a trickle of blood down Mac’s bare chest. I eyed the droplet. I willed it to stop rolling. I pushed everything I had, focusing on it. The white-haired man lunged at me, yelling something, but it was too late. He froze mid-air. 

They were all statues, but I had no idea how much time we had. I ran over to Mac, and without thinking, I wiped the small drop off him. The brief contact must have broken whatever hold my powers had over him. He blinked at me and flung his arms out, sending the three stiff men flying. I just blinked. When the three men hit the floor, they shattered as though they were made of glass. What the hell? Had I done that? I looked down at my hands. They still looked like hands. 

Mac walked over to the fourth man and punched him with such force I felt the room shake slightly. The man flew into millions of tiny glass shards. Okay, so I knew this was a kill or be killed moment, but had I done this? Had I been responsible? I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat. I had never, directly or indirectly, been responsible for someone’s death. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. 

I felt strong hands cradle my face. 

“Dara, I need you to dress. We need to leave. There will be more. They wouldn’t dare attack you in our realm. We need to find the gate. These solntse demons will not be the last.” 

I blinked up at him. 

He gave me a quick kiss on my head and added, “I am so proud of you, little demon.” 

That seemed to jar me to the present. I got ready with brisk practicality. I needed to get the hell out of there. I eyed the food with longing, but we didn’t have time for that. “Mac, how did they find us?”

“I don’t know, but I will find out.” He walked over to the large door leading out to an even bigger balcony. He opened the double doors and sunlight spilled in, making the already pristine white room seem to glow. He looked at me, and his expression spoke volumes without having to say a single word. I had to stop myself from running into his arms. Instead, I walked. Quickly. 

Chapter Seven

WE FLEW. AND FLEW. AND freaking flew. We flew so long I wished I had a book, or a deck of cards to play solitaire. Instead, I played twenty questions. It wasn’t my goal to annoy the shit out of him, but it was a perk. I had a terminal case of curiosity. Had I been a cat, I would have died four hundred times over. 

“What is the brand on your palm?” I asked absentmindedly. 

He held me tight to him as he scanned the ground. I had no idea where precisely we were, or even if we were still in Kentucky. 

“It’s the symbol of your house. It’s branded on all of the demons who are employed by the royal family.” He was so patient with me, answering all of the million questions I pelted him with. 

“Why did my father promise me to your brother?” 

I felt the beating of his heart speed up at the question. 

“Dara, please.” 

“No, I want to know why a man who abandoned me thought he could just marry me off.” I shut my mouth with a clack. If I hadn’t, I would have gone off on a tirade. 

“Oh Anabelle, leaving you nearly killed him. He was a good—”

“No! I don’t want to hear how wonderful he was. Please Mac, just answer the question.”

 I felt a warm tear slide down my cheek, but it was brushed away by the beating of his wings. Neither of us spoke for a long while. The steady whooshing of the air was lulling me to sleep.

“My brother is the head of our house. He’s ruthless. Your father hoped that your marriage would solidify the power of the two families. Your father knew this marriage would be a powerful one. One I swore I would see through.”